Tag Archives: lipscomb university

Charlie Daniels performs at "Playin’ Possum! The Final No Show" at Bridgestone Arena on Friday. (Photo: John Partipillio/The Tennessean)

Charlie Daniels is an outspoken supporter of the United States military. For the last several years, the “Devil Went Down to Georgia” singer has raised funds to make sure the service men and women can have careers after their tours of duty are over.

This year is no different.

Daniels is pairing with Lipscomb University for the fifth annual Copperweld Charlie Daniels’ Scholarship for Heroes event -- a benefit concert to raise awareness of the national Veterans Yellow Ribbon education program and funds for veterans’ education at Lipscomb University.

Set for 7 p.m. March 25 at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena, the lineup includes “Dancing with the Stars” winner Kellie Pickler, Clint Black, The Grascals, the Navy Band Sea Chanters and the American Hitmen.

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. They are available at all Middle Tennessee Daily’s and Twice Daily’s locations, the Lipscomb University box office and by calling 615-966-7075.

Santa will be on hand to pose for free photos, and food will also be available. In the event of bad weather, the event will move inside Allen Arena.

The lighting of the university’s large Christmas tree will conclude the evening.
While the event is free, this year attendees are asked to bring canned food or money to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank.

Click the image to see a gallery of Lipscomb University's 2011 'Lighting of the Green' concert (this photo of Amy Grant: Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean).

Amy Grant will once again usher in the holiday season at Lipscomb University, where the Nashville Christian music star will headline the ninth annual "Lighting of the Green" concert on December 3.

The free outdoor event will also feature performances from fellow Christian artists Nicole C. Mullen and Cindy Morgan and Rock and Roll/Country Music Hall of Fame member Brenda Lee, whose hits include the holiday staple "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

Festivities start at 4 p.m. at the Allen Arena Mall on Lipscomb campus, with music following at 5:30. Other attractions include free photos with Santa and an assortment of holiday vendors in the "Merry Marketplace." The evening concludes with the lighting of the school's Christmas tree.

Attendees are encouraged to bring canned food or cash donation for Second Harvest Food Bank, and are welcome to bring lawn chairs and blankets.

“Gospel Music’s Biggest Night” came home to Nashville last night — and clearly not a moment too soon.

After two years in Atlanta, the 44th annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards took place Tuesday night at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena, and Nashville’s Christian music stars dominated the stage and drove home Music City’s status as a major hub for faith-based music.

In terms of sheer numbers, the night belonged to an artist who didn’t claim Nashville, Atlanta or any other U.S. city as home: British songsmith and worship leader Matt Redman, whose six wins included songwriter and song of the year for his “10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord).” But one of the night’s top honors — artist of the year — went to Christian pop mainstay and Middle Tennessee resident TobyMac, and local names were called throughout the evening, from Hendersonville singer Jason Crabb (southern gospel performance of the year) and Nashville duo for King & Country (new artist of the year).

TobyMac also opened Tuesday night’s show, kicking off a night of performances that saw rock giving way to rap, traditional gospel and electronic dance music.

“I love setting the pace for the rest of the night,” TobyMac said before the show. “Showing (the audience) that gospel music, the Dove Awards isn’t all about hymns and church music. It’s about God’s word going out in all forms of music.”

After spending the last two years in Atlanta — marking the first time it had been held outside of Nashville — the 44th annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards returns to Music City at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena.

Gospel Music Association Executive Director Jackie Patillo said she couldn’t comment on the decision to move to Atlanta, but told The Tennessean, “It’s appropriate for us to bring it back home.”

“Nashville is quite a hotbed for Christian and gospel artists, as well as our industry, so everybody’s excited about it coming back to Nashville.”

The concert, in Lipscomb’s Allen Arena, is free, but donations will be accepted to support Lipscomb’s Yellow Ribbon Enhancement Program, part of the Charlie Daniels’ Scholarship for Heroes event.

Lipscomb’s Yellow Ribbon Enhancement Program offers eligible post-9/11 GI Bill veterans and family members an undergraduate degree tuition-free or a graduate degree either tuition-free or at a greatly reduced rate.

Festivities - including a "Merry Marketplace," photos with Santa, free hot chocolate and cookies and a food collection for Second Harvest Food Bank - kick off at 4 p.m. Music starts at 5:30, and a tree lighting follow at 7, with the Tennessean's Mary Hance (Ms. Cheap) doing the honors.

As a little boy, Joel Campbell remembers getting dragged to one of his sister’s recitals — and that’s where he fell in love with the violin.

“I saw this young kid playing; he was a year older than me,” Campbell recalled, “and I looked at him and said, ‘That is cool. I would really like to do that.’ ”

So in third grade, Campbell started taking lessons in the area near Cincinnati where he lived. But like most kids, he developed a second love. When Campbell injured his knee playing sports, he became fascinated with the body’s healing process and with the doctors and physical therapists who oversaw it.

As a high school student, Campbell shadowed doctors, volunteered at hospitals — and all the while, he played violin in orchestras, and played it well.

When it was time to pick a college, Campbell found that Lipscomb University in Nashville — where most of his mom’s family lived — offered a way to pursue both.

Camp, a professor of theology and ethics at Lipscomb University, had this notion about combining music and theology, about offering up songs and academic inquiry in a way that wouldn’t be sacrilegious or patronizing or dumbed-down or cheesy.

He had this notion about a kind of social justice variety show.

He wanted to greet audiences with warmhearted challenges, and with theological and ethical questions. Not church audiences, mind you ... we’re talking about the general public.

But, as any commercial art purveyor along Music Row or Studio City will tell you, the general public doesn’t want to be challenged or questioned. We want to be celebrated and ratified.

Concerts aren’t for thinking, at least not beyond things like, “I think Bob Dylan is singing ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,’ but it’s hard to tell ’cause for the past 15 years he’s sounded like he’s gargling razor blades” (geezer rock version); “I think I’m way too old to be here” (Justin Bieber version); or “I think the last six songs have all been about pickup trucks, and I feel celebrated and ratified because I myself have a pickup truck” (country version).

Anyway, Mr. Camp, how do you plan to market something so amorphous, when even super-bright newspaper columnists in major Southern cities can’t even write “amorphous” without using spell check?

“All along, we’ve known there is no good market niche for this,” Camp says.